Irishman who faked his own kidnapping linked to $5million US fraud case

Kevin McGeever, the former Irish property investor, has admitted to faking his own kidnapping.

The 68-year-old vanished from his County Galway mansion for eight months and turned up earlier this year in rural County Leitrim looking disheveled and lost.

But according to the Irish Independent it turns out that McGeever was the leader of 'a sophisticated scheme of financial fraud' where more than 70 investors across the US were allegedly scammed out of their cash.

McGeever is now reportedly at the centre of a US court case examining a $5 million fraud.

After admitting to Irish police that he fabricated his kidnap story to get his creditors off his back, officers in Galway are awaiting a decision from the Irish Department of Public Prosecutions as to whether he will be charged with wasting police time.

Meanwhile McGeever is facing a series of High Court actions from people he allegedly encouraged to invest in international property deals, only to discover the properties either weren't owned by McGeever or didn't exist.

Court papers filed in Illinois in 2003 reportedly show a complaint from more than 25 people who claim they lost money in an investment scheme operated by McGeever and others. The sums lost ranged from $1,000 for one Illinois resident to up to as much as $1.6 million lost by a man in Wisconsin.

McGeever, who at the time was reportedly living in the state of Georgia, was named as one of the promoters of the scheme operating under several names including 'Global Trust Ltd' and 'Global Trust Bank.'

He is alleged to have 'knowingly and falsely claimed' that the 'high-yield' program that would 'generate substantial profit for investors… with little or no risk.'

The court papers claim that McGeever 'held himself out as the leader' of the Global Trust companies and state that he held conference calls with investors where he claimed he was 'in the same boat' as the investors because he himself had invested $2 million in the scheme.

McGeever reportedly left the US for Dubai after authorities began investigating the scheme.

A 'red notice' from the FBI regarding McGeever was issued to Interpol in 2003, indicating that the federal law enforcement agency was interested in interviewing him over alleged fraud carried out in the US.

The notice was cancelled in 2011, the same month as authorities in the United Arab Emirates had McGeever placed on an Interpol watch list over separate property dealings in the Middle East.